Hey Zurf!
Sorry about that last before one! I made the fatal mistake of sitting down at the computer after a long night of too many drinks! Apologies for any bad reading caused!
Having said that, the info was good if the delivery was bad.
An elucidation:
You said you wanted 8 siganals whether mic or guitar - whatever you get will need at least 8 channels.
You want to play live (whether on your own stage or abroad) and record - do you want two mixers for two jobs or one mixer for both?
If you get one mixer for each job, neither mixer will be that much cop and their features (lack of) will soon wane assuming, that is, that you are making a considered investment and don't have money to burn.
If you get one mixer to do 2 jobs and look after it, you will find you spend less than two thirds the money to get double the features.
Assumong you decide to go with the one mixer option, what recording facilities do you want? Do you want to record your live band straight to stereo? You need to get the settings right on the mixer and cannot edit individual voxs/instruments post recording.
The Xenyx 2222FX
http://www.music123.com/Search/Default. … nyx+2222fx
will give you 8 mic pre-amps, no more, but will record at 24bit 96KHz to stereo right out of the box, with a built in effects processor. You can get it with the speakers mentioned earlier and do live performances right out of the boxes at $649.99.
Having said that, with this mixer there is little point in getting a decent seperate soundcard as you will have limited outputs from the mixer/limited inputs for seperate tracks going into the computer.
Might you want to edit individual instruments or voxs on recordings? You will need to get a seperate soundcard with 8 seperate inputs (1 for each mic/instrument) if you are going to record the band live.
This being the case, the Xenyx 2442 will give you stereo 24bit 96KHz (better than CD quality) right out of the box and has 10 mic preamps and 8 direct outs for future recordings with a decent soundcard with more than 2 inputs. AND it's only $50 more for the package with the aforementioned speakers and its got the same built in FX unit - Record (as soon as you have a free computer) and Live ready right out of the boxes - $699.99.
Do you want to play with the live set up and get into the recording later treating the whole thing as a gradual process over several/many months or years and maybe spend a little more than an all-at-once buy? Then the Xenyx 1600 will give you serious mixer facilities at a budget cost - 12 mic preamps, 6 auxilliaries, 12 direct outs but no FX and no USB recording output, stereo or otherwise.
There are other mixers. This is my studio mixer:
It cost £1000 in 1999 and they aren't made any more. I have a channel strip (preamp and features from 1 channel of a mixer that would cost £250,000) that cost half as much as my mixer because I wanted to record 1 input (usually a vox via a £500 mic) as well as any studio in the world and know that the £1000 soundcard that has 8 simultaneous inputs/outputs (16 when interfaced with the £1000 digital 8 track tape) my mixer won't degenerate the sound in any way! (It's also no slouch in itself and I use it for all electric instrument inputs and backing voxs.)
You probably don't want to spend as much as I did on a mixer but have something that will give you decent results and features that will grow with you as you get more into things.
I don't work for or get paid by Behringer, Music123 or Harbinger. I do own a Behringer - Ultracurve Pro DEQ2496, a measurement mic, a jackfield and a stompbox tuner which I'm delighted with and I've worked with their mixers which are very good.
I spent £700 on my mixeramp without speakers and wish to goodness that someone had told me just the live part of what I've said.
I hope you get what you are happy getting (whoever makes it) and that you are delighted with using it for many, many years to come and hope I neither came/have come across like a salesman or too vehemently, but but instead have given considered professional advice based on the requirements you set out.
Gans pup bollonjeth oll da! 
